Ghotyal Saag or Sindhi Style Spinach
Aisee Palak recipe video
AlifBe i.e A-Z of Sindhi Food series is now at the 40th alphabet. I went crazy figuring out name of a Sindhi dish starting with this alphabet but couldn’t find any.
The alphabet is گهہ i.e घ (in Devanagari) or ‘Gh’ in Roman Sindhi. ‘Gh’ as in Ghat or Ghee.
In January this year when I was making a list of possible dishes for each Sindhi alphabet, I assumed that ‘Ghee’ or ‘Gheehar’ (a Sindhi sweetmeat) would be apt for this alphabet. But when I started referring dictionaries, I was flabbergasted to know that in Sindhi ‘Ghee’, the Golden liquid, is called ‘Geeh’ and hence the term starts with the letter ‘G’ (ग) and not with ‘Gh’ (घ).
Somebody please tell me that this ain’t true !!!!
And since none of the vegetarian Sindhi dishes start with this alphabet, here I am with ‘Ghotyal Saag^’, the Sindhi style Spinach. The term Ghotyal comes from ‘Ghotna‘ i.e to churn/whisk manually and the saag used could be any variety of leafy greens like spinach, mustard leaves, Amaranth etc.
Saag (leafy greens) are prepared in many ways but the most rustic preparation calls for boiling the leafy greens with or without souring agents (tomatoes/curds/buttermilk), using basic spices like turmeric and coriander powder and churned vigorously till a homogenous chutney like texture is obtained. A tempering of ghee/ oil and chillies, garlic, ginger etc is generally given to enhance the flavors.
While the Sindhi Saibhaji is made with spinach, sorrel, dill leaves, assorted vegetables and some chana dal, there are other ways that Sindhis love to cook and consume spinach.
Ghotyal Saag^ (here, the spinach) is made by cooking greens with garlic, onions and tomatoes, in a pressure cooker. The subzi is then mashed/whisked with a wooden whisker for 10 -15 minutes at least. A spoonful of Jowar/Wholewheat flour is added while mashing so as to get a homogenous mixture.
Some add garlic in the beginning, some add the garlic tempering after churning the saag while many add garlic twice i.e add it in the beginning and then add some more in the tempering towards the end of cooking process.
Ghotyal Paalak (Sindhi style spinach) is also made in a pan/kadai instead of the pressure cooker and the dish is then called as ‘Aisee’ or ‘Nijji’ Paalak .
If an iron kadai is used to cook ‘Aisee Paalak’ the color of the dish turns out to be darker in shade and hence the dish is then called ‘Kaari (black in Sindhi) Paalak‘
While it is mandatory to whisk all the saag preparations really well, the Aisee and Kaari paalak are more like whisked stir fry preparations. The Ghotyal saag (paalak) is smoother in consistency than Aisee but not as smooth as that in Paneer Palak where the spinach is blended instead of whisking.
Using electric blender/ food processor/ mixie would alter the flavours of the rustic ‘Ghotyal paalak’ so make sure to mash it with wooden whisker only!
- Spinach 1 bunch
- Green chillies 2-3
- Onions 2 small
- Tomatoes 3 (medium sized )
- Garlic 8 - 9 cloves
- Ginger ½ inch piece
- Turmeric ¼ tbsp
- Coriander powder 1 and ½ tbsp
- Ghee/Oil 2 tbsp for cooking and 1 tbsp for tempering
- Salt as per taste
- 1 -2 tbsp of Jowar flour/ Whole wheat flour mixed with 3-4 tbsp of water (optional)
- Cut off and discard the hard stems of spinach.
- Rinse spinach leaves with water, a few times to get rid of mud/ dirt.
- Chop the leaves roughly and keep aside.
- Finely chop the ginger, green chillies and the garlic. Divide the garlic into 2 portions.
- In a pressure cooker, heat 2 tbsp of oil and add chopped ginger and one portion of the garlic. Save the other portion for the tempering. Add green chillies too. (I add chillies later to avoid strong fumes in the kitchen/home)
- When ginger garlic are light brown, add chopped onions.
- Cook the onions on medium heat till light brown in color.
- Add chopped tomatoes, salt, turmeric and coriander powder.
- Add chopped spinach and mix.
- Close the pressure cooker with the lid. No need to add any water.
- Wait for one whistle of the cooker and then lower the heat.
- Cook for 15- 20 minutes. Switch off the heat.
- When the pressure subsides, open the lid of the cooker. A little of water (extracted from tomatoes and spinach) in the sabzi would be there in the cooker. Start whisking using a wooden whisker (Mathni/Ghotna/ Mandhiyaro) and mash the sabzi well. (Note: Sometimes there is way too much water left in the cooker, In that case heat the sabzi further to evaporate excess of water) .
- Keep mashing and whisking the paalak for good 10-15 minutes.
- If the mixture still looks fibrous (non homogenous) then take 3-4 tbsp of water and mix 1-2 tbsp of jowar flour or whole wheat flour and add this paste to the mashed paalak sabzi.
- Whisk further till a nice chutney like texture is obtained.
- Heat 1 tbsp of ghee/oil and add the remaining garlic and when it turns brown, immediately add the tempering to the saag.
- This saag pairs well with Khichdi, roti, rice, Jowar roti (Dhodho) and even with the sweet Lolo.
To learn how to write in Arabic Sindhi, do check my video tutorials about Sindhi Alphabet on my Youtube channel, Sindhirasoiofficial!
